Happy Anniversary?
by Wonderstorm
Summary: Set a little over a year after the end of the Buu Saga.  It's Goku's anniversary, but he has completely forgotten about it.  Boy, is he in big trouble.  How will he talk his way out of his own stupidity this time?  Will Chi-Chi even let him get a word in?


**A/N: Originally written on December 24, as another Christmas present for my two sisters. Poor Chi-Chi and Goku get next to no screen (or page) time, so I'm here to fix that. Horizontal lines indicate a scene shift or a shift forward in time. Rated K+ for romance and very minor violence.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Dragon Ball Z (which I don't), I would put in just a few more romance scenes between Chi-Chi/Goku and Bulma/Vegeta. The rights to DBZ belong to Akira Toriyama, and maybe to Shonen Jump magazine, I don't know. And I'm not *sigh* making money with this.**

Happy Anniversary?

On top of Dende's Lookout, Goku gulped down the food that Dende and Mr. Popo had prepared as fast as he could. Uub watched him with amusement as he ate his own meal at a much slower speed.

"Goku, you'll choke if you're not careful," Uub said.

"No, I won't," Goku managed to say around his enormous mouthful of food. He swallowed and grinned at Uub. "You'd better hurry up and finish your food so we can get back to training!" Goku took ten more seconds to consume two more plates of food. "Great food, Dende! Ready to go, Uub?"

Uub laughed. "I don't eat quite as fast as a Saiyan. Wait for me a little while."

"Aw, man," Goku complained.

Uub, Dende, and Mr. Popo laughed at his impatience.

Goku was watching Uub eat when he suddenly felt an approaching high power. "Hey, you guys feel that?" he asked.

"Yeah, a high power level is headed right for us," Uub confirmed.

Goku watched as his son flew up to them and touched down gently.

"Goten!" he cried happily.

"Hey, Dad," Goten greeted him.

Goku failed to notice his son's agitated mood. "You look great! How is everybody doing?"

"Everyone's fine."

"How is Pan?"

"She's great, getting stronger every day." Goten smiled sheepishly. "She can almost beat me in a fight now."

Goku laughed. "That's my granddaughter. She'll be just as strong as her grandpa one day."

"Dad, I actually came here because of Mom."

Goku's smile vanished. "Huh? What's wrong with Mom?"

"Nothing is wrong. She's fine," Goten assured him. His son looked reluctant to keep talking. "Do you know what day it is, Dad?"

"Huh? What day? No, I don't."

"It's Wednesday," Dende said helpfully.

"Not just any Wednesday. It's Wednesday, June 17," Goten said. For some reason, Goku saw Goten staring at him very sympathetically.

"Um . . . June 17?" Goku repeated without comprehension.

"Dad, it's your anniversary," Goten reminded him quietly.

"_What?"_ Goku yelped. "Oh, man, Chi-Chi's gonna kill me," he moaned. "Is she mad?" he dared to ask.

"She's been pretty quiet all day, but tonight she yelled at me over dinner," said Goten as one who was resigned to be the bearer of bad news.

Goku swallowed nervously. He visually inspected himself and sniffed his body experimentally. "Do I look all right?" he asked.

They all stared at him, and he knew that they were trying to think of a kind way to say what was painfully obvious. His clothes were tattered, and he was soaked with sweat. The only part of him that looked presentable at all was his hair.

"No," Mr. Popo finally said.

"I smell even worse," Goku groaned.

"You'd better go, Dad. She's waiting for you."

"I was afraid of that."

Goku placed two fingers on his forehead and searched for Chi-Chi's energy signal. He offered a hand to Goten. "You want to come along?"

Goten shook his head. "I think I'll take the scenic route. I don't want to be in the middle of you and Mom's screaming."

"Smart boy," Goku said with a hollow laugh. "I'll be back soon. Wish me luck."

He didn't hear anything beyond "Good—" before his Instant Transmission sped him away.

* * *

><p>Goku reappeared in front of his house. The sun was sinking behind the forest. Small clinking sounds from the open window told him that Chi-Chi was washing the supper dishes.<p>

"Chi-Chi, it's like this. I just lost track of time. It's kind of hard to remember to check the calendar when you're miles above Earth." He thought about his hastily formulated excuse. "No, she would just tell me to buy a calendar for the Lookout."

He tried to create another excuse. "I was busy training with Uub, and it's hard for me to think about anything else when I'm training." He analyzed his excuse again. "No, then she would say that martial arts is more important to me than she is."

He scrabbled for a third excuse. "I didn't want to come home all dirty and smelly. I had to take time to clean up. Oh, what am I saying?" It was his worst excuse yet, considering that he had showed up at the door wearing dirty clothes and stinking horribly.

Goku grabbed the doorknob and opened the door before he lost his last shred of courage. He tiptoed to the kitchen and peeked around a corner of the wall.

With a sinking heart, he saw that Chi-Chi was washing the dishes in a particularly ferocious manner. "Chi-Chi?" he managed to force out of his tight throat. She whirled around and threw a soapy plate at his head. Goku withdrew his head immediately, and the plate flew past him down the hallway. He chased after the plate and caught it before it hit the ground. He turned to the kitchen only to see a soapy bowl headed his way. He caught it, and suddenly it seemed as though every dish in the house were flying out of the kitchen. Goku expertly dodged dishes and snatched them out of the air until he was standing with an odd dish assortment in his arms. He danced around in the limited hallway space as he desperately tried to keep the tall stack of dishes from falling to the floor.

"Chi-Chi . . . this . . . isn't . . . really . . . helping!" Goku cried, shoving the teetering pile of dishes against the wall in an effort to stabilize them.

"Well, it's making me feel better!" Chi-Chi bellowed.

She helped Goku support the dishes, and they walked back to the kitchen and set the dishes on a counter top. Goku divided the dishes into smaller piles and put the piles near the sink. When he was finished, he met  
>Chi-Chi's furious gaze.<p>

"What do you have to say for yourself? How could you leave me all alone on our anniversary? You've been gone for over a year, you know! You never even showed up for last year's anniversary! And I was foolish enough to think that you would remember this one! You forgot again, didn't you?"

Goku tried to interrupt her screaming tirade. "No, I'm just a little late because—"

"Don't give me that nonsense! Goten told you, didn't he? I saw him fly out his bedroom window!"

"Yes," Goku answered meekly.

"You can't even remember your own anniversary without help! Do I mean that little to you?"

"You know that's not—"

"I've been home all this time, but you never bothered to show up once! You were too busy teaching some kid how to knock someone's brains out! You're going to leave after our anniversary is over, aren't you?"

Goku trembled in the face of her verbal onslaught. "Well . . ." he stalled.

"I knew it! All you care about is your martial arts! It doesn't matter to you that I sit at home and wait for you day after day."

"Chi-Chi, that's not—"

"You always have a good reason to leave. 'I have to go to Namek to fight the terror of the universe. I might die, but don't worry about me!' 'I have to train some kid to be as big a fighting idiot as I am. I'll be home in a year. Bye!' So long as I'm here to put supper on the table, you don't care if you only show up to eat and run!"

"That's not—"

"Married people are supposed to spend time together, but that never seemed to matter to you! You always ran off to fight whenever you could! Bulma got to go on all your trips, but you never took me along! You would spend years away from home, only to show up for a few weeks and then leave again! Even when you were around, you were too busy training to have time for more than supper and sleep. Leaving me all alone didn't matter. I never mattered to you—"

"That's not true!" Goku shouted.

They glared at each other for a few moments before Chi-Chi began to cry.

Goku felt even more contrite than he had before. "Chi-Chi, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell," he mumbled.

"Why won't you come home? I miss you," Chi-Chi sobbed. "I know you have to fight. That's what Saiyans do. But do you have to stay away for so long?"

"I know I don't come home as often as I should. And I have no excuse for forgetting our anniversary. But you're wrong when you say that you don't matter. I wouldn't be able to fight and get stronger if you weren't waiting at home for me. You make me strong." He slipped his arms around her. "Gohan and Goten can take care of themselves now. Gohan won't let anything happen to Pan. And Bulma has Vegeta to look after her. But I'll always need to protect you. That's why I fought Frieza and Cell and Buu. I knew that if I couldn't beat them, then they would destroy Earth, and I would fail you."

"You never failed me," Chi-Chi murmured into his chest.

Goku tugged the band that held her hair up in a bun, and her hair fell to her shoulders. He ran his fingers through her black tresses.

"I also knew that when I did defeat the enemies of Earth, I would be able to find you waiting patiently at home for me. You must have always known when I would be home, because you always had supper on the table."

"I don't have supper on the table now," Chi-Chi said apologetically.

"Lucky for you I just ate."

Goku picked up a nearby dish towel. "I can dry the dishes."

"Actually, most of them are dry. I emptied the cupboards so I could throw dishes at you."

"Well, throw them at me again, and I'll put them away."

Chi-Chi reached for the dishes and grinned mischievously at him. She threw plates, bowls, and cups as hard as she could; and she aimed them around the kitchen so that Goku had to move quickly to catch them.

"Chi-Chi, wait a minute!" Goku called.

Chi-Chi stopped in the middle of hurling a knife. "What is it? What's wrong, Goku?"

"I just realized that I don't know where anything goes in the kitchen!"

Chi-Chi started to laugh, and Goku laughed with her until tears of laughter streamed down their cheeks. They reversed roles and soon put all the dishes in their proper places.

"It's too late to go out tonight, but I'll take you out tomorrow, and we'll do lots of fun stuff," Goku promised.

Chi-Chi leaned against him. "What kinds of stuff?" she wondered.

"We'll fly on Nimbus, and go swimming, and climb trees, and I can show you lots of pretty waterfalls."

"That sounds wonderful," Chi-Chi whispered contentedly.

Goku took her chin in his hand and tilted her head up until her eyes met his. "Have I ever told you that you're beautiful?"

"Not quite as often as I would like."

"Sorry. You are."

The smile that she gave him made him want to stay near her forever.

"Thank you, Mr. Super Saiyan."

Goku leaned down and kissed her. He lost himself in the smell of her; the feel of her hair falling through his fingers; the softness of her body pressed against his; the taste of her lips as she surrendered herself to him.

The sound of the front door's opening caused him to pull away. He lifted Chi-Chi off her feet and held her in his arms.

"Happy anniversary," he whispered.

"Happy anniversary, my love," she whispered back.

Goten peered into the kitchen. He grinned with relief when he saw Goku's holding Chi-Chi. "How do you do it, Dad?"

"Your mom is in a really good mood," Goku said, grinning widely.

"And your father is just so charming," Chi-Chi added.

"I'll leave you two alone, then. Good night, Mom. Good night, Dad." Goten climbed the stairs to his bedroom.

"Good night!" Goku and Chi-Chi answered simultaneously.

Goku grinned and twirled Chi-Chi around. She held onto his neck, and their laughter filled the kitchen.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Chi-Chi prepared a giant breakfast for Goku and Goten. After they had all eaten as much as they could hold, Goku led Chi-Chi outside.<p>

"Are you sure we can't bring food?" he asked her for the fourth time.

"If I brought food, you would only think about eating and would pay no attention to me," Chi-Chi explained once again.

"Okay, you win."

Goku took a deep breath and yelled, "Nimbus!"

Seconds later, the faithful golden cloud was flying into view. Goku leaped on top of it and held out his hand to Chi-Chi. "Climb on!"

"Goku, we've gotten too big to ride together on Nimbus. We both won't fit," Chi-Chi laughed.

"Oh. Okay, then you can ride."

He jumped off and held her hand as she stepped up onto the cloud.

"All right, Nimbus, let's go!" Chi-Chi called.

Nimbus soared into the sky, and Goku flew alongside his wife.

"Faster, Nimbus, faster!" Chi-Chi encouraged.

Nimbus accelerated suddenly, and Chi-Chi shrieked with fear as she began to topple backward.

Goku flew behind her and pushed against her back to prevent her from falling off. Wrapping his arms around her, he matched Nimbus's speed and stabilized her flight.

They flew over trees, fields, and ponds. When they flew past a mountain, Goku pointed at a waterfall that flowed down the mountain's side.

"Nimbus, take us down there!" he shouted.

Nimbus descended until it hovered beside the frothing lake below the waterfall.

Goku held Chi-Chi's hand as she stepped down from Nimbus. He stripped off his clothing until he was standing in his boxers and jumped into the water with a gleeful whoop.

"Come on, Chi-Chi!" he encouraged.

Chi-Chi folded her clothes neatly, gathered Goku's haphazardly tossed clothing articles, and folded them as well. Then she threw herself into the water and emerged shivering and laughing breathlessly.

Goku didn't know for how long they swam. They explored behind the waterfall, and he ducked Chi-Chi numerous times. He even flew all the way to the top of the waterfall and jumped down.

They finally emerged from the lake. Since Chi-Chi could not stop shivering, Goku held her until she grew warm. As he lay on the bank, and Chi-Chi dozed on his chest, he did not think there ever had been, or ever would be, a happier Saiyan than he in the whole universe.

^The End^

**A/N: Yay, Goku/Chi-Chi love and fluff all around. Read and review, pretty please!**


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